Staff Meeting, Our First Assignment, Part 2

Posted on Wed Jan 31st, 2024 @ 5:42am by Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Major Clay McEntyre III & Lieutenant Jules Mundy & Lieutenant JG Thivi & Attaché Phesg Tel'im
Edited on on Mon Apr 1st, 2024 @ 1:18am

1,462 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: Deck 1: Bridge Conference Room
Timeline: MD: -2, 36 hours to Launch

[Part 2]

Tel'im, studying the data available, quirked a smile and one eyebrow in a Vulcan-like manner. "Interesting... Unless I miss my mark, my folk have had a run-in with this civilization before. Well, not much--during our second wave of expansion, Imperial colonization teams found this system, and remnants of the civilization that inhabited it. We didn't find anything like this, and the system remained an if little-known curiosity. I only know it so well because this is relatively close to where I underwent my Qowat Milat training. There are at least two Class-M planets in the system, but neither of them met our needs at the time, so Romulans never settled there."

Vila nodded. "I have some files you might like to look at; my second posting was at a now-defunct research outpost nearby here. We had all kinds of information," she said. "I'll look through my things," she said. Her pregnancy had been a blessing in disguise, timing wise, because the science station had ended up getting attacked by rogues and she was glad to have missed it.

"Thank you, Commander." She looked to Johansen. "I assume you've run a comparative language analysis--nothing in the database even remotely close?"

"Correct. Starfleet has a handful of items that appear to be in the same language, but nothing in the database compares, and the universal translator has been useless until Lieutenant T'lenn gave it a boost after working manually through a few on the inscriptions. The UT will eventually be able to keep up, but the sample size is still too small for the UT to be fluent. It will still need a lot of help," Remy explained.

"Understood... Thank you." The Romulan nodded her head at the commander.

Clay nodded along from his seat. He'd been there for some time, still in full armor and duty loadout as he leaned back into his chair and took notes on his PADD. "If we're investigating the ship, I'd like to request permission to begin drawing up a list for a Landing Party. My intent with this is to board ahead of the science section and secure the wreckage and make sure no one is lurking aboard."

Wearing his blue suit, Joey stood rather than sit behind the seating. "I trust this briefing isn't classified?" He asked, "Meaning I can inform the crew, crew morale is already not within my permitted approval levels this information will be able to bolster it for a short time." He elaborated, no one was happy to be the ship was moved up on the departure schedule.

"Yes, Counselor, it's not classified. The away team will be small, but hopefully Winters and Mundy can get power up and running, and information flowing back to the ship so that more people will be able to work on the project," Remy responded.

"Commander McEntyre, there is a team ahead of us that has been on board and running scans. We'll do our own sweep as well. Three security officers of your choosing will accompany Commanders Lorut and Winters, along with Lieutenant Mundy. From science I want Lieutenant Ghiram to take Officer T'lenn on the initial away party," Remy said.

"Understood. Ensign S'niri and Petty Officer Nemec will be accompanying me on the Security detail."

"The rest of you are welcome to join me on the Bridge while they head out, you're here, because I suspect we'll be sending you over at some point, so it would be good to there to have all the information from the beginning," she added. It was killing her to not be going over - one of the reasons she hadn't really looked too hard for her own command.

“Commander, if you can hang back a minute….I’d like to take another member of my staff. Ensign P’Rar. She has a way with computers. I know she can help us. She may be young, but she’s reliable, talented, and I trust her,” Nash said.

"Also. If everyone can remain seated at the end, please do so. I have a special announcement. Commander Johansen, I'll need your assistance," she said, indicating the other woman.

Remy stood up. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Ghiram, if you could please step forward," Remy asked. Remy had a small box with one solid gold pip - to replace the one denoting him as a junior grade. She held it toward Vila. "Doctor Lorut, would you do the honors?"

Ghiram stood up, his left eyebrow jerking upwards involuntarily.

Vila smiled. “Sure,” she replied, standing up. “Congratulations, LIEUTENANT,” she said, pinning the Pip to the man’s collar. “I look forward to seeing what you can do.”

“And I-“ an insult couldn’t come to mind this time; sincerity would have to make do. “- appreciate it.” He nodded.

She smiled and offered her hand for him to shake. "I've rendered a Tellerite speechless. I can now retire!" She joked lightly to him.

Thivi simply couldn't keep a smile off her face. Rarely had she ever encountered a Tellarite tongue-tied for an insult to hurl - this was certainly new.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant Ghiram," Remy said, offering a curt nod. "Okay everyone. We have work to do. Get your departments up to speed. We leave tomorrow at 1300 hours. Dismissed."

Vila watched as the others filed out, but remained behind for final thoughts and to see what this mysterious Nash Winters had to say.

As the others were filing out, Remy looked at the Chief engineer. "You have an ensign who you think would be helpful in the initial phase? Done. Anything else?"

“With your permission, I’d like to requisition some power converters in case their energy matrix is not compatible with Starfleet technology. If we can’t get the alien vessel’s life support online, a power transfer to their core processors might be necessary.”

"About that, you should read our report, and the one from the Atlantis who initially discovered it," Remy said. "You can take what you need, but their energy source is quite different from what we are used to working with. They are crystals, really. Different shapes and sizes. Dr. Jackson and T'lenn were surmising that short of rewiring the entire vessel the first course of action will be to find which ones can still be used as a power source, and how to route the systems we want to prioritize through to the power generators we can get up and running again."

"It's going to be fun, Commander," Remy added.

“I’ll definitely read the reports. Looks like the tricorders may need to be recalibrated to read these crystals. Hope it won’t come to trial and error such as pulling and pushing and waiting to see what happens. Thanks, Remy. I’ll let you know when we’re ready.”

Remy nodded. "Starfleet has seen this technology before, just not on something so large as a ship. The lab here on Jupiter station has already begun transferring data, and codes to update the tricorders. If they aren't already updating, they will start soon. As for the order - that's why they are sending us, even though we aren't the closest ship. You'll need Lieutenant T'lenn to help with translating the inscriptions on the crystals. She was the first to gain the first steps toward understanding this language."

"Fun? We clearly have two different ideas of what that word means," Vila remarked. "So like...data crystals. New. Fun." Her voice was tinged with sarcasm. She recognized that it was the way of the future. She still hated it. "Also, consider tapping into Lt. Girham. He has training in Xenoanthropology," she said. "More than me. I prefer dangerous things like chemicals and dynamite," she joked. It was true, though. She had once nearly blown up the chemistry lab on a ship in her younger days, mixing stuff together "to see what would happen."

Nash winked and smiled as he needled the First Officer. “Now I have second thoughts about my daughter hanging around with you, Vila. Xenoanthropology, huh? Paleontology has always been a hobby of mine. But….that’s a discussion for another time.”

"Anything else?" Remy interrupted. She trusted the department heads to pass the information down to the crew, but wanted to make sure she was hearing everything that everyone had to say. "Alright, dismissed."

[End]

Commander Remy Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea

Commander Vila Lorut
First Officer
USS Astrea

Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineer/Second Officer
USS Astrea

Lt. Commander Clay McEntyre III
Chief of Security
USS Astrea

Lt. Junior Grade Thivi
Head Nurse
USS Astrea

Lieutenant Jules Mundy
Chief Operations Officer
USS Astrea

Lieutenant Ghiram Korin
Chief Science Officer
USS Astrea

Lt. Junior Grade Joey #640
Chief Counselor
USS Astrea

Attaché Phesgm TelIm
Romulan Affairs
USS Astrea

RSS Feed